Holiday Hardware Buyers Guide

The holiday season can be a rough time if you are not sure what you buy, or ask for. We have taken out the hassle and delivered a comprehensive guide of our top picks that covers every type of component inside your computer.

Update: We’ve added a gadgets page!

Gadgets

Stocking Stuffers

Turbo Charge – Official Site Turbo Charge is a Battery-Powered, Reusable, Wireless Cell Phone Charger that runs on a single AA Battery and features advanced technology for extra power and safety. Perfect for Emergencies, Turbo Charge is the safest and most convenient way to charge your cell phone! $20

USB Sim Card Reader – Official Site This GSM Sim reader allows you to read, backup and modify information you may carry in your sim card. It allows you to store, read and edit phonebook data and sms messages. $30

Atari 2600 Plug and Play Keychains – Official Site In the olden days of gaming, when quarters were a hot commodity and color graphics were the newest innovation, one name stood out as king: Atari. The games were visually simple, but still retain their hold as some of the most challenging and fun games ever created. Sadly, it’s just too difficult to carry around an Atari system and a bag of cartridges and controllers (both joystick and paddle) with you wherever you go. So, we’ve found a pocket sized solution. $12.99 – $14.99

Practical Gifts

USB Vonage Phone – Official Site Get a phone that fits on your keychain! The Vonage V-Phone turns any PC or laptop into a fully functional Vonage telephone. $40

CompUSA 145-Piece Computer Tool Kit – Official Site The most complete tool kit for home and office repair and maintenance. Work on everything from computers and office equipment to furniture, lamps and more… Heavy duty, custom blow-molded carrying case $60

Mister Tipster Desktop RSS Display – Official Site Mister Tipster’s desktop RSS display lets you stay current on the news and information that matters to you most, without using up valuable real estate on your computer screen. $150

Lapinator – Official Site The only laptop desk that keeps your lap cool and your laptop cooler! $25 & $30

Walkie Talkie Watches – Official Site Another Walkie Talkie Watch, but this time not quite so nerdy looking. These watches were worn by the Norwegian Olympic Team during the last Winter Olympics, which means they’re decent enough for people who need things to work! $110/pair

TomTom – Official Site TomTom NV is a leading provider of personal navigation products and services. TomTom’s products are developed with an emphasis on innovation, quality, ease of use and value. TomTom’s products include all-in-one navigation devices which enable customers to navigate right out of the box. $500-$700

Lego Mindstorms – Official Site LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT is a robotics toolset that provides endless opportunities for armchair inventors, robotics fanatics and LEGO builders ages 10 and older to build and program robots that do what they want. Building upon the success of the globally-renowned Robotics Invention System, the next generation of LEGO robotics is smarter, stronger and more intuitive than ever, leveraging new technologies and expanded sensor capabilities to add a level of sophistication to excite and challenge more experienced robot creators. $varies

Logitech IO Digital Pen – Official Site The Logitech io2 looks and feels like a luxury pen with its sleek and stylish design. But unlike a standard office pen, it digitally captures everything you write or draw on smart digital paper. $150

Logitech 880 Remote – Official Site The Harmony 880 Advanced Universal Remote puts you in control of your entire audio-video system with just one button. It´s home entertainment the way it should be—simple. Optimized for complicated HDTV and PVR systems, the Harmony 880 helps you tame tough configurations like switching your television between video aspect ratios depending on the program source. The interactive color display lets you quickly choose a 16:9 ratio for movies and HDTV, or a standard 4:3 ratio for basic television programming. $250

Impractical Gifts

Designer USB Flash Drives – Official Site Who can resist a Darth Vader Flash Drive?

1GB $80

2GB $120

4GB $170

Monster Laptop Sleeves – Official Site Tired of your boring laptop? Cover it with a fuzzy blue friend or an abominable white cover. Complete with fangs! $65

RetroPad – Official Site Classic NES controller upgraded to USB. Authentic gameplay unmatched with other controllers. No adapters needed, just plug and play! Mario was never as easy. Get 2 or more controllers to play multiplayer games with friends. See FAQ for controller condition. $30

LaCie Brick Desktop Hard Drive – Official Site Look familiar? Crafted by the world-famous designer Ora-Ïto, the new Brick expresses a playfulness in a user-friendly high-performance hard drive. Stack & Play multiple LaCie Bricks together to brighten your desktop and your mood (they’re even stackable with LaCie Mobile Bricks). With Hi-Speed USB 2.0 interface, it offers the fast data transfer rates required for substantial jobs like downloading digital photos, saving MP3s or transferring home videos from a camcorder. $130

Nuvo Home Robot – Official Site “nuvo” is the first-home-use-type humanoid robot in the world, which means “the humanoid robot for everyone”, not in the movie, drama, or novel, but in your daily life. “nuvo” is developed under the concept of “Always be Together”, resulting in small and light—39cm in height and 2.5kg on weight— to realize safety and mobility at the same time. $7,000

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